Daniels endorses Romney

By Alexander Burns

04/18/12 08:56 AM EDT

Joining the parade this week of top Republicans signing off on their party's presumptive nominee is Mitch Daniels, the man many in the GOP leadership hoped would run in the first place. Just in from the Romney campaign:

Announcing his support, Governor Mitch Daniels said, “Mitt Romney has earned our party's nomination and now deserves the support of every American still committed to government that serves the people rather than rules over them. The ruinous debts and anti-enterprise policies of today threaten more than our near-term economy; unaddressed soon, they will end the promise of upward mobility that our nation has always offered to its young and its poor. And they will end the U.S. leadership which has promoted peace and progress around the world for so many decades. Mitt Romney has proven that he understands what is at stake and is prepared to summon Americans to the changes that will restore the American Dream and our national greatness. I'll do whatever I'm asked to help him.”

The highest-profile holdouts, now that Daniels, John Boehner, Mitch McDonnell and Bobby Jindal have endorsed, are probably Haley Barbour and Rick Perry. Barbour has said he won't endorse in the primary at all, though he said he voted for Gingrich in the Mississippi primary, and Perry has officially endorsed Gingrich's campaign.